berlin blues explosion 2017: friday

Berlin. I don’t think I have sufficient words for how much this weekend was exactly what I needed in my life right now. But I’m going to try:



Dancing until 6 in the morning, without even noticing the time passing. The most fabulous social dances in a looong while, like not just great dances but exhilaratingly great, the kind that will completely restore your faith in yourself as a dancer while still inspiring you to keep working and working and working. (Also, dancing with the same person for over an hour because it simply didn’t stop being wonderful - when did that last happen?)

Some three hours of sleep per night, then getting up and making it to class on time (!). And they were some truly great classes, I got to play with shape and posture and direction and groove and all the yummy things that I love about blues.

Sitting on couches just off the dance floor, enjoying the music (well most of the time - you know I am a horrible snob when it comes to live bands), chatting with dance friends from abroad who I don’t get to see as often as I would like, but always appreciate immensely when there’s time and space for a longer chat.

Also: The light on the streets of Berlin. I’m mesmerized, every time.

Here's Friday in photos:



Had breakfast at our usual breakfast place (because it's the best), Impala.



Classes with Dan Repsch & Jenny Sowden. Yay for classes that make me rethink the patterns I fall into as a follower, YAY!


Then I fell down the stairs to the basement (where the bathrooms are). That hurt. I can laugh at it now, because it must have looked ridiculous; it was a very slow fall, the kind where I kept trying to regain balance and reaching for something and slipping and actually having time to think "this is going to hurt" ... My knees and lower legs have insane bruises (still, after more than a week; they have changed colors beautifully over the week, from dark blue to greenish to purple red and now almost brown), but other than that, I was fine. It is kind of hilarious though that the staircase actually had a real warning sign - AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS. :)

Then, prelims time; no photos from that because I was competing! I was really happy with my dancing in bot the solo & the strictly (partnered with Philippa, who wrote to me the week before and was like: we have fun social dancing, do you want to compete with me? Of course I wanted to!), and mostly unhappy with my dancing in the J & J. More on the comps in a later post. :)


And after some rest and dinner: Tangoloft! Oh Tangoloft, how we love you.

Teachers' J & J (gah the inspiration I get from watching these lovely people dance):









Other parts of the night were spent chatting and being silly in general ...


... but most of it was spent dancing, until DJ Tracy (<3) finished the night at 6 in the morning; I can't remember what she played, but I had one of those fantastic dances that just go on and on, so it was probably brilliant as usual. :)

(Want to see my photos from BBE 2014? Start here and go forward from there.)